having a hard time docking my boat. I have been out twice and each time having a hard time getting back to the dock. any advise on a easy way to dock it. i have been using it in the river and trying to allow for the current but whatever i try does me no good. today coming back in we busted a 180 right in the middle of the ramp. Please Help
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trouble docking 180 se challenger
- Thread starter sphink
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Welcome to my 2011 July Nightmare.. But I figured it out in 2-3 try.. May be my friend knows about boat a lot and he was with me during practice time. One thing during my lesson, It's not car steering LOL...
Here's what I did.. I went to lake during non-peak time and practice practice practice... Now, whenever my friend needs to get off the boat and get a car. All I put to the dock and he gets off (I put in reverse right away) hurrahh...
Practice Practice Practice is the key
James.Moon
Active Member
I had similar problems with my new 2009 180SE. Never drove a boat before and found out it is the toughest kind to learn on. It would have helped a lot if I had a buddy with a pike pole or something but all my early outings were solo. It will spin on a dime and not necessarily when you want it to. My first mistake was to give it a little throttle on the manual's instruction that you need throttle to steer! I found best to use only idle throttle when docking and even then toggle between neutral and forward or backward to keep things real slow. Also best not to move the steering wheel too much - it is kind of like driving a car on glare ice. Mine actually will go forward very slowly in neutral which helped once I understood it works that way. On a river current is an even bigger challenge than my situation. Make sure you have your bumpers out. Good luck - it is charm to drive once you get away from the dock!
timeman
Active Member
Sound like you are carrying too much speed?
The guys gave you the right advice, it's all about practice, and no throttle or wild turns on the wheel, highly recommend going on a weekday when the pressure is off. Lots of people get a boat drop it in the water and blast around all day, never practicing docking or loading, that mistake can make for lots of embarrassing and costly surprises and take a lot of the enjoyment out of boating.
Here's what I do... throttle down,... approach at about 45 degrees,with dock on the starboard /driver side of the boat,... as you get close shift to neutral, ...do not touch the throttle.....alternate short shifts in F the N as needed to control speed, slowly creep bow to dock on that 45 degree line....when bow is getting close, shift to N, and turn wheel ever so slightly away from dock....as it gets within a few inches, briefly shift to R, which should shed all speed and pull the stern toward the dock...then quickly back to N.
Of course, current and wind will be a factor, always stop and calculate these before beginning your approach, once you have a plan, time to set you bumpers. If your tendancy is to come in too hot, you could approach on the down wind side and let it help hold you off, but if you come up short, and need to throttle things can get hairy. Or you could stay upwind of the dock, approach very slow, align and allow the wind to push you toward the dock.
In all cases, if you practice staying off the throttle, keep the wheel straight, and alternate between F-N-R, you should be able to walk right up to the dock like a pro in no time.
Good luck, and happy boating!
The guys gave you the right advice, it's all about practice, and no throttle or wild turns on the wheel, highly recommend going on a weekday when the pressure is off. Lots of people get a boat drop it in the water and blast around all day, never practicing docking or loading, that mistake can make for lots of embarrassing and costly surprises and take a lot of the enjoyment out of boating.
Here's what I do... throttle down,... approach at about 45 degrees,with dock on the starboard /driver side of the boat,... as you get close shift to neutral, ...do not touch the throttle.....alternate short shifts in F the N as needed to control speed, slowly creep bow to dock on that 45 degree line....when bow is getting close, shift to N, and turn wheel ever so slightly away from dock....as it gets within a few inches, briefly shift to R, which should shed all speed and pull the stern toward the dock...then quickly back to N.
Of course, current and wind will be a factor, always stop and calculate these before beginning your approach, once you have a plan, time to set you bumpers. If your tendancy is to come in too hot, you could approach on the down wind side and let it help hold you off, but if you come up short, and need to throttle things can get hairy. Or you could stay upwind of the dock, approach very slow, align and allow the wind to push you toward the dock.
In all cases, if you practice staying off the throttle, keep the wheel straight, and alternate between F-N-R, you should be able to walk right up to the dock like a pro in no time.
Good luck, and happy boating!
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Agree with the dock crashing practice,,,,
Boats don't steer like a car. If you turn to the right the bow does NOT go to the right. The stern goes left,,,,
Out in the open this means very little as there is nothing to hit. Near docks and other boats this becomes important.
Approach ONLY as fast as you are willing to hit it,,,
Boats don't steer like a car. If you turn to the right the bow does NOT go to the right. The stern goes left,,,,
Out in the open this means very little as there is nothing to hit. Near docks and other boats this becomes important.
Approach ONLY as fast as you are willing to hit it,,,
You can boat in Indiana today? WTH man.. Should I move from GA to Indiana ( I moved from Chicago to ATL in 2011 since my whole family lives in ATL)
If the weather doesn't change quickly, I might have to change my job :facepalm:
Between reverse turning (turn right-goes right, forward or reverse) and feathering the F/N/R - no throttle needed like they said above, it can feel a little awkward at first. Once you get the hang of it you'll be able to do out maneuver any of the prop boats around the docks. Just spend a little time practicing, dock and pull away a few times like a goober, and you'll get the hang of it.
A couple weeks ago we were docking at a place called the Sanddollar. Their crappy dock is a square area with a bunch of vertical poles spaced about 15' apart in it, then a wood dock at one end. No problem for the Challenger, go straight at the dock, stop and spin 90 degrees and feather it in.
A couple weeks ago we were docking at a place called the Sanddollar. Their crappy dock is a square area with a bunch of vertical poles spaced about 15' apart in it, then a wood dock at one end. No problem for the Challenger, go straight at the dock, stop and spin 90 degrees and feather it in.
well took the boat out saturday on a lake this time and docked it a lot better going real slow. I read a post from somewhere on the net about putting the shift lever between N and R to stop the forward push while at the dock in Nuetral. has anyone tried this and what results have u got.
That's the 'feathering'. Think of the F/N/R as your throttle while docking. F will move you forward, R will move you in reverse and somewhere in the middle is a neutral. It's not necessarily where the N is, but it's in there somewhere
timeman
Active Member
sphink said: "Stop the forward push while at the dock in Neutral"....
Because the impeller is always engaged, the only way to stop forward push while at the dock is stop the engine.
Understand, there is no transmission or clutch, it's direct drive, the impeller is always turning , always pushing water through the jet, matters not where your shift lever sits. Reverse isn't really a "gear" (nor is "nuetral")....it's simply the metal reverse bucket being lowered in front of the constant push of water, directing it the opposite way. Once you "feather" your way next to the dock, turn off the engine, you can easily maneuver using your dock lines, or even your hand on the dock.
If you want to run your engine at the dock, tie off the boat,...... or learn to swim really fast
Because the impeller is always engaged, the only way to stop forward push while at the dock is stop the engine.
Understand, there is no transmission or clutch, it's direct drive, the impeller is always turning , always pushing water through the jet, matters not where your shift lever sits. Reverse isn't really a "gear" (nor is "nuetral")....it's simply the metal reverse bucket being lowered in front of the constant push of water, directing it the opposite way. Once you "feather" your way next to the dock, turn off the engine, you can easily maneuver using your dock lines, or even your hand on the dock.
If you want to run your engine at the dock, tie off the boat,...... or learn to swim really fast
cycleguy88
New Member
The hardest thing for me is that it's real easy to overturn these things. Turn the wheel and give it a second to react before turning more. Also reverse is like your brakes. I line up a put in neutral till I'm ready to stop and then hit reverse and then once momentum is stopped I go back to bury real n cut the engine
i've found that i can navigate my 200 almost 100% laterally onto the dock with barely any fore/aft travel by leaving the wheel turned slightly toward the dock the entire time and carefully feathering F/R at idle. works great to get into a tight parallel spot on a busy dock and makes it easy to compensate for current by adjusting (and then maintaining) an appropriate steering angle offset.
Everyone has hit the nail on the head. The FNR lever is he key. Leave the boat at an idle and work that lever back and forth. Lots of practice on a slow day is your friend.
I just took my (new to me) 2011 Challenger 180 SE 255/tower out last night for the first time... MAN, this thing is a DREAM to drive!!! The whirr of the supercharger got me all giddy too!! 
The steering is 100000x better than my Yamaha AR230 (2004 model). The AR has ZERO steering at neutral or slow idle, and minimal at normal idle/no wake zones.. The Sea-Doo has full control regardless of FNR and regardless of zero throttle or not. Wherever you turn the wheel, is the way it will begin moving (slowly or quickly of course). I always had full confidence in the wheel, although the reverse steering is backwards which really threw me for a loop for a bit until I got the hang of it. We easily launched the boat and retrieved it at the end of the evening - and we hadn't touched a boat in ~2 years!! We had no dock at this particular launch ramp, so I had to kiss the dock with the stern to get the wife on and back off again. It worked flawlessly. I felt like such a pro driving this thing. Even putting it back on the trailer was much easier than with the Yammy.. Man, I felt like it was a breeze with the Challenger.. VERY PLEASED!!!
So yeah and if you didn't read between the lines above... on a busy dock, or where docks seldom exist, just try to kiss the shore or break wall with your stern or bow. Have your partner prevent any crash if need be, but just go slow and steady and then hit it the other way when you are about to kiss the wall.. that way you don't actually hit it and you can pick up folks or have someone jump off with a rope, whatever. You can also squeeze in between boats this way, and then when there's more room, use your hands to walk the rest of the boat parallel to the dock/wall/shore to tie it up properly..
The only issue I had out last night was during retrieval - the trailer I think was too low initially and we came in and go the boat locked back in, but during winching we discovered the bow was below the trailer winch rollers. So we had to get it close and then pull it up out of water more and then tighten it further, then push the trailer back in water some more and then winch it further. This worked but we felt like we did something wrong in the end as it took 3 movements with the trailer. Fenders were roughly just at water level.. is there a better gauge I should use to get the trailer @ the right depth?
The steering is 100000x better than my Yamaha AR230 (2004 model). The AR has ZERO steering at neutral or slow idle, and minimal at normal idle/no wake zones.. The Sea-Doo has full control regardless of FNR and regardless of zero throttle or not. Wherever you turn the wheel, is the way it will begin moving (slowly or quickly of course). I always had full confidence in the wheel, although the reverse steering is backwards which really threw me for a loop for a bit until I got the hang of it. We easily launched the boat and retrieved it at the end of the evening - and we hadn't touched a boat in ~2 years!! We had no dock at this particular launch ramp, so I had to kiss the dock with the stern to get the wife on and back off again. It worked flawlessly. I felt like such a pro driving this thing. Even putting it back on the trailer was much easier than with the Yammy.. Man, I felt like it was a breeze with the Challenger.. VERY PLEASED!!!
So yeah and if you didn't read between the lines above... on a busy dock, or where docks seldom exist, just try to kiss the shore or break wall with your stern or bow. Have your partner prevent any crash if need be, but just go slow and steady and then hit it the other way when you are about to kiss the wall.. that way you don't actually hit it and you can pick up folks or have someone jump off with a rope, whatever. You can also squeeze in between boats this way, and then when there's more room, use your hands to walk the rest of the boat parallel to the dock/wall/shore to tie it up properly..
The only issue I had out last night was during retrieval - the trailer I think was too low initially and we came in and go the boat locked back in, but during winching we discovered the bow was below the trailer winch rollers. So we had to get it close and then pull it up out of water more and then tighten it further, then push the trailer back in water some more and then winch it further. This worked but we felt like we did something wrong in the end as it took 3 movements with the trailer. Fenders were roughly just at water level.. is there a better gauge I should use to get the trailer @ the right depth?
Having the trailer too deep will cause the issue you had. It will often be a bit sideways, as in one side higher than the other. Shallow the trailer a bit and let the power of the boat do the work. It will be straight and level and you will need only inches of the cable/strap as compared to winching it 2 foot or so.
I have ran into the same thing loading back on to the trailer. we found that we were to deep but have not been out much to fine tune the depth. As for the forward push at the dock in my mind have not been out to test but physics says if in N and there is forward thrush and no actual gear than going from N to R there should be a place where the thrust is neturalized before it goes the other way correct. I tested the idea out of the water by watching the bucket move as i had someone in the boat go from N to R. i will check it out next time i get in the water which should be sunday and let you know what i find. anyone agree or disagree with good reasoning on this idea?
timeman
Active Member
The slope of the boat ramp will also have an effect. In my area I back my trailer in to where the water is about 3 or 4 inches below the top of the fenders. I feather the boat in fairly slow, gliding in "N" as it makes contact with the skids, waiting a moment for it to settle and center itself on the skids...turning the wheel slightly if needed to make sure I am lined up straight,.... then apply a couple bursts of forward throttle to walk it to the rollers. Regarding the neutral gear...there is probably some hypothetical point where the reverse bucket could be lowered just enough to offset any forward thrust, but finding it might be more than tricky, and the reality is: because your engine is always forcing water through the impeller, then deflecting it off the reverse bucket, the boat is most likely going to have some movement, if you equalize the F / R movement, my guess is it would still want to move to one side or the other. It's never going to sit idle like a prop boat in N would.
(BTW prop boats also experience a condition known as "prop-walk" where the boat will turn much easier in one direction than the other depending on whether you have a clockwise or counter clockwise rotation of the drive shaft, but at least when you put a prop boat in N, the prop stops turning, not so on a jet)
Every boat has it's own learning curve, no substitute for practice.
(BTW prop boats also experience a condition known as "prop-walk" where the boat will turn much easier in one direction than the other depending on whether you have a clockwise or counter clockwise rotation of the drive shaft, but at least when you put a prop boat in N, the prop stops turning, not so on a jet)
Every boat has it's own learning curve, no substitute for practice.
Glad your enjoying your new toy! A trick I use when winching the boat back onto the trailer is to keep a square patch of marine carpet in the boot of the car. Reverse into the water with the boot open to make the carpet easy to get to. As the bow gets close to the roller I wedge the carpet between the roller and the hull. This allows me to fully wind up the bow and lock on with the safety latch without doing any damage to the hull.
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